At one of the following meetings, after a fairly long talk on knowledge and being, G. said: “Strictly speaking, you cannot as yet speak of knowledge because you do not know with what knowledge begins. “Knowledge begins with the teaching of the COSMOSES. “You know the expressions ‘macrocosm’ and ‘microcosm.’ This means ‘large cosmos’ and ‘small cosmos,’ ‘large world’ and ‘small world.’ The universe is regarded as a ‘large cosmos’ and man as a ‘small cosmos,’ analogous to the large one. This establishes, as it were, the idea of the unity and the similarity of the world and man. Fragments: Ten

“The teaching of the two COSMOSES is known from the Cabala and other more ancient systems. But this teaching is incomplete and nothing can be derived from it, nothing can be built on it. Nothing can be derived from it because this teaching is merely a fragment split off from another, much fuller, ancient esoteric teaching about COSMOSES or worlds, included one within another and created in the image and the likeness of the greatest of them, including in itself all the others. “As above, so below,” is an expression which refers to COSMOSES. Fragments: Ten

“But it is essential to know that the full teaching on COSMOSES speaks not of two, but of seven COSMOSES, included one within another. Fragments: Ten

“Seven COSMOSES, taken together in their relation to one another, alone represent a complete picture of the universe. The idea of two analogous COSMOSES, accidentally preserved from a great and complete teaching, is so incomplete that it can give no idea whatever of the analogy between man and the world. “The teaching on COSMOSES examines seven COSMOSES: “The first cosmos is the Protocosmos — the first cosmos. “The second cosmos is the Ayocosmos, the holy cosmos, or the Megalocosmos, the ‘great cosmos.’ “The third cosmos is the Macrocosmos — the ‘large cosmos.’ “The fourth cosmos is the Deuterocosmos — the ‘second cosmos.’ “The fifth cosmos is the Mesocosmos — the ‘middle cosmos.’ “The sixth cosmos is the Tritocosmos — the ‘third cosmos.’ “The seventh cosmos is the Microcosmos — the ‘small cosmos.’ “The Protocosmos is the Absolute in the ray of creation, or world 1. The Ayocosmos is world 3 (‘all worlds’ in the ray of creation). The Macro-cosmos is our starry world or the Milky Way (world 6 in the ray of creation). The Deuterocosmos is the sun, the solar system (world 12). The Mesocosmos is ‘all planets’ (world 24), or the earth as the representative of the planetary world. The Tritocosmos is man. The Microcosmos is the ‘atom.’ Fragments: Ten

“You see that in the general order of the seven COSMOSES the Microcosm and the Macrocosm stand so far apart from each other that it is impossible to see or establish any direct analogy between them. Fragments: Ten

“All COSMOSES result from the action of the same forces and the same laws. Laws are the same everywhere. But they manifest themselves in a different, or at least, in not quite the same way on different planes of the universe, that is, on different levels. Consequently COSMOSES are not quite analogous one to another. If the law of octaves did not exist, the analogy between them would have been complete, but owing to the law of octaves there is no complete analogy between them, just as there is no complete analogy between the different notes of the octave. It is only three COSMOSES, taken together, that are similar and analogous to any other three. Fragments: Ten

“The conditions of the action of laws on each plane, that is, in each cosmos, are determined by the two adjoining COSMOSES, the one above and the one below. Three COSMOSES standing next to one another give a complete picture of the manifestation of the laws of the universe. One cosmos cannot give a complete picture. Thus in order to know one cosmos, it is necessary to know the two adjoining COSMOSES, the one above and the one below the first, that is, one larger and one smaller. Taken together, these two COSMOSES determine the one that lies between them. Thus the Mesocosmos and the Microcosmos, taken together, determine the Tritocosmos. The Deuterocosmos and the Tritocosmos determine the Mesocosmos, and so on. Fragments: Ten

“The relation of one cosmos to another is different from the relation of one world to another in the astronomical ray of creation. In the ray of creation worlds are taken in the actual relation in which they exist in the universe for us, from our point of view: the moon, the earth, the planets, the sun, the Milky Way, and so on. Therefore the quantitative interrelation of the worlds one to another in the ray of creation is not permanent. In one case or on one level it is greater, for instance, the relation of ‘all suns’ to our sun; in another case, on another level, it is less, for instance, the relation of the earth to the moon. But the interrelation of the COSMOSES is permanent and always the same. That is to say, one cosmos is related to another as zero to infinity. This means that the relation of the Microcosmos to the Tritocosmos is the same as that of zero to infinity; the relation of the Tritocosmos to the Mesocosmos is that of zero to infinity; the relation of the Mesocosmos to the Deuterocosmos is that of zero to infinity; and so on. Fragments: Ten

“In order to understand the meaning of the division into COSMOSES and the relation of COSMOSES to each other, it is necessary to understand what the relation of zero to infinity means. If we understand what this means, the principle of the division of the universe into COSMOSES, the necessity of such a division, and the impossibility of drawing for ourselves a more or less lucid picture of the world without this division will immediately become clear to us. Fragments: Ten

“The idea of COSMOSES helps us to understand our place in the world; and it solves many problems, as for instance, those connected with space, with time, and so on. And above all this idea serves to establish exactly the principle of relativity. The latter is especially important for it is quite impossible to have an exact conception of the world without having established the principle of relativity. Fragments: Ten

“The idea of COSMOSES enables us to put the study of relativity on a firm basis. At the first glance there is much that seems paradoxical in the system of COSMOSES. In reality, however, this apparent paradox is simply relativity. Fragments: Ten

“The idea of the possibility of broadening man’s consciousness and increasing his capacities for knowledge stands in direct relation to the teaching on COSMOSES. In his ordinary state a man is conscious of himself in one cosmos, and all the other COSMOSES he looks at from the point of view of one cosmos. The broadening of his consciousness and the intensifying of his psychic functions lead him into the sphere of activity and life of two other COSMOSES simultaneously, the one above and the one below, that is, one larger and one smaller. The broadening of consciousness does not proceed in one direction only, that is, in the direction of the higher COSMOSES; in going above, at the same time it goes below. Fragments: Ten

“In reality this means that if, for instance, a man begins to feel the life of the planets, or if his consciousness passes to the level of the planetary world, he begins at the same time to feel the life of atoms, or his consciousness passes to their level. In this way the broadening of consciousness proceeds simultaneously in two directions, towards the greater and towards the lesser. Both the great and the small require for their cognition a like change in man. In looking for parallels and analogies between the COSMOSES we may take each cosmos in three relations: “1. in its relation to itself, “2. in its relation to a higher or a larger cosmos, and Fragments: Ten

“As has been said before, the idea of COSMOSES alone can provide a firm basis for the establishment of the laws of relativity. Real science and real philosophy ought to be founded on the understanding of the laws of relativity. Consequently it is possible to say that science and philosophy, in the true meaning of these terms, begin with the idea of COSMOSES.” Fragments: Ten

“What personally interests me most in this system of COSMOSES is that I see in them the full ‘period of dimensions,’ of my New Model of the Universe. It is not merely a coincidence of details — it is absolutely identical. I do not know how it has come about; I have never heard of seven COSMOSES related to one another in the ratio of zero to infinity. Nevertheless my ‘period of dimensions’ coincides with this absolutely exactly. Fragments: Ten

“As I have already said, the system of COSMOSES, the exposition of which we have just heard, strikes me above all by the fact that it fully corresponds to the ‘period of dimension’ which is the basis of my New Model of the Universe, only this system of COSMOSES goes still further and explains many things which were not clear in my model of the universe. Fragments: Ten

“The possibilities of the earth are actualized in the Ayocosmos; this means that in the Ayocosmos the earth is a six-dimensional body. And actually we can to a certain extent see in what way the form of the earth must change. In the Deuterocosmos, that is, in relation to the sun, the earth is no longer a point (taking a point as a scale reduction of a three-dimensional body), but a line which we trace as the path of the earth around the sun. If we take the sun in the Macrocosmos, that is, if we visualize the line of the sun’s motion, then the line of the motion of the earth will become a spiral encircling the line of the sun’s motion. If we conceive a lateral motion of this spiral, then this motion will construct a figure which we cannot imagine because we do not know the nature of its motion, but which, nevertheless, will be the six­dimensional figure of the earth, which the earth itself can see as a three-dimensional figure. It is necessary to establish and to understand this because otherwise the idea of the three-dimensionality of the COSMOSES will become linked with our idea of three-dimensional bodies. The three-dimensionality even of one and the same body can be different. Fragments: Ten

At this point I ended my survey of the system of COSMOSES from the point of view of the theory of many dimensions. Fragments: Ten

“There is a great deal of material in what you have just said,” said G., “but this material must be elaborated. If you can find out how to elaborate the material that you have now, you will understand a great deal that has not occurred to you till now. For example, take note that time is different in different COSMOSES. And it can be calculated exactly, that is, it is possible to establish exactly how time in one cosmos is related to the time of another cosmos. Fragments: Ten

Later on one of G.’s Moscow pupils added to this that, speaking with them once of COSMOSES and of different time in different COSMOSES, G. had said that the sleep and waking of living beings and plants, that is, twenty-four hours or a day and night, constitute the “breath of organic life.” Fragments: Ten

G.’s lecture on COSMOSES and the talk following it greatly aroused my curiosity. This was a direct transition from the “three-dimensional universe” with which we had begun, to the problems which I had elaborated in the New Model of the Universe, that is, to the problems of space and time and higher dimensions, on which I had been working for several years. Fragments: Ten

For over a year G. added nothing to what he had said about COSMOSES. Fragments: Ten

Several of us tried to approach these problems from many different sides and, although all of us felt a great deal of potential energy in the idea of COSMOSES, for a long time we got no results. We were especially confused by the “Microcosmos.” Fragments: Ten

“If it were possible to take man as the Microcosmos and the Tritocosmos as the human race, or rather as organic life, it would be much easier to establish the relation of man to other COSMOSES,” one of us, Z., said in this connection, who with me had attempted to understand and to develop further the idea of the COSMOSES. Fragments: Ten

I remember once when he was leaving Petersburg, it was possibly even his final departure in 1917, one of us asked him at the station something relating to COSMOSES. Fragments: Ten

At any rate, some time later when I returned again to the problem of COSMOSES I decided to take man as the Microcosmos, and to take the Tritocosmos as organic life on earth. Fragments: Ten

“If we want to represent graphically the interrelation of the COSMOSES,” I said, “we must take the Microcosmos, that is, man, as a point, that is to say, we must take him on a very small scale and, as it were, at a very great distance from ourselves. Then his life in the Tritocosmos, that is, among other people and in the midst of nature, will be the line which he traces on the surface of the earthly globe in moving from place to place. In the Mesocosmos, that is, taken in connection with the twenty-four hours’ motion of the earth around its axis, this line will become a plane, whereas taken in relation to the sun, that is, taking into consideration the motion of the earth around the sun, it will become a threedimensional body, or, in other words, it will be something really existing, something realized. But as the fundamental point, that is, the man or the Microcosmos, was also a three-dimensional body, we have consequently two three-dimensionalities. Fragments: Ten

“Further, seven COSMOSES represent a ‘period of dimensions,’ but this does not mean that the chain of COSMOSES comes to an end with the Microcosmos. If man is a Microcosmos, that is, a cosmos in himself, then the microscopic cells composing his body will stand towards him in about the same relation as he himself stands to organic life on earth. A microscopic cell which is on the boundary line of microscopic vision is composed of milliards of molecules comprising the next step, the next cosmos. Going still further, we can say that the next cosmos will be the electron. Thus we have obtained a second Microcosmos — the cell; a third Microcosmos — the molecule; and a fourth Microcosmos — the electron. These divisions and definitions, namely ‘cells,’ ‘molecules,’ and ‘electrons,’ are possibly very imperfect; it may be that with time science will establish others, but the principle will remain always the same and lower COSMOSES will always be in precisely such relation to the Microcosmos.” Fragments: Ten

It is difficult to reconstruct all the conversations which we had at that time about COSMOSES. Fragments: Ten

I returned particularly often to G.’s words about the difference of time in different COSMOSES. I felt that here was a riddle which I could and must solve. Fragments: Ten

Finally having decided to try to put together everything I thought on the subject, I took man as the Microcosmos. The next cosmos in relation to man I took as “organic life on earth,” which I called “Tritocosmos” although I did not understand this name, because I would have been unable to answer the question why organic life on earth was the “third” cosmos. But the name is immaterial. After that everything was in ac­cordance with G.’s system. Below man, that is, as the next smaller cosmos, was the “cell.” Not any cell and not a cell under any conditions, but a fairly large cell, such as for instance the embryo-cell of the human organism. As the next cosmos one could take a small, ultramicroscopic cell. The idea of two COSMOSES in the microscopic world, that is, the idea of two microscopic individuals differing one from the other as much as does “man” from a “large cell,” is perfectly clear in bacteriology. Fragments: Ten

Such a succession undoubtedly introduced or maintained a complete incommensurability between the COSMOSES, that is, it preserved the ratio of zero to infinity. And later this system made possible many very interesting constructions. Fragments: Ten

The idea of COSMOSES received a further development only a year after we heard it for the first time, that is, in the spring of 1917, when I succeeded for the first time in constructing a “table of time in different COSMOSES.” But I will speak of this table further on. I will only add that G. never explained, as he promised, the names of the COSMOSES and the origin of these names. Fragments: Ten

It proved that friends and acquaintances asked very shrewd questions to which most of bur people had no answers. They asked for instance what we had got from the work and openly expressed doubts as to our “remembering ourselves.” On the other hand others had themselves no doubt whatever that they “remembered themselves.” Others found the “ray of creation” and the “seven COSMOSES” ridiculous and useless; “What has ‘geography’ to do with this?” very wittily asked one of my friends parodying a sentence from an amusing play which had been running shortly before this; others asked who had seen the centers and how they could be seen; others found absurd the idea that we could not “do.” Others found the idea of esotericism “entertaining but not convincing.” Others said that this idea in general was a “new invention.” Others were not prepared to sacrifice their descent from apes. Others found that there was no idea of the “love of mankind” in the system. Others said that our ideas were thorough-going materialism, that we wanted to make people machines, that there was no idea of the miraculous, no idealism, and so on, and so on. Fragments: Twelve

But I was unable to grasp the principle on the basis of which it would be possible to determine exactly when to make use of such a scale. P. showed me a table made up to the fifth scale and relating to parallel levels in different worlds. But I got nothing from it. I began to think whether it was not possible to unite all these various scales with the various COSMOSES. And having dwelt on this thought I went in an absolutely wrong direction because the COSMOSES of course had no relation whatever to the division of the scale. It seemed to me at the same time that I had in general ceased to understand anything in the “three octaves of radiations” from which the first scale of “hydrogens” was deduced. The principal stumbling block here was the relation of the three forces 1, 2, 3 and 1, 3, 2 and the relations between “carbon,” “oxygen,” and “nitrogen.” Fragments: Thirteen

I must quote here still one more talk with G., once again in connection with COSMOSES. Fragments: Fifteen

About a year afterwards while developing the ideas of the COSMOSES in connection with problems of time I obtained a table of time in different COSMOSES of which I will speak later on. Fragments: Fifteen